Meet Lucy
A pet partnership in counselling at Wantirna College
Lucy, the five-year-old Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen, is a qualified counselling ‘interventionist’ and placement partner to her owner, ACAP student Jacqui Nolan. While it’s true Lucy has beaten her master to qualifying as a canine practitioner, the dog’s graduation involved nine study-free units, dependant largely on charm. There was no essay-writing, and treats were available during her assessment.
Jacqui trained her pet with the aim of the pair joining forces at Bachelor of Counselling placement. For Jacqui’s 250 hours of field experience at Wantirna College, she was keen to combine the techniques common to face-to-face counselling with the non-verbal benefits specific to animal therapy.
Jacqui’s counselling placement at Wantirna College provided the impetus to follow her hunch and formally prepare Lucy for the therapy environment. Wantirna College had no problem with Jacqui bringing her canine offsider to school when Jacqui joined the team counselling 12 to 18 year old students.
“The Wellbeing department of the College have been so accommodating. We worked together to establish good boundaries around having Lucy on and off lead, and the staff have been extremely supportive,” said Jacqui.
“Lucy has a wonderful way of greeting people. Sitting down with students, she helps them to feel relaxed and her presence assists in building rapport and trust in the therapeutic relationship.” In a typical counselling session, Lucy acts as ‘interventionist’. As Jacqui predicted, her dog is a natural in the role.
“Students observe the trust and rapport I have with Lucy, which I think conveys that they will be safe to share information with me. Lucy can provide humour at the perfect moment with a grunt or a sigh while a student is storytelling, or perhaps give a lick on the hand during a difficult moment. She also provides a lot of information by how she moves around the room or when she becomes anxious,” said Jacqui.
“Additionally, I can observe how a student is with Lucy, which will often be a microcosm of how they are with others in their life. This provides a great opportunity to bring a behaviour to the student’s attention without judgement. Lucy is also very much ‘in the moment’ which can be a great example of mindfulness.”
“All of the students on my caseload have been positive about seeing my dog, but I do check in with them beforehand to make sure they want her present. The therapeutic relationship students have with me is often established more easily. Students observe my relationship with Lucy and can see the trust and fun relationship we have. It also provides a transparency that allows the students to see more of who I am as a person. We also worked with another counsellor with a student who had a dog phobia, which was interesting.
Wantirna College promotes resilience in the students while also giving them support,” she said.
Jacqui and Lucy will complete their placement at Wantirna College in August 2017.
Jacqui Nolan was interviewed in May 2017
This is an excerpt of the original article, published by ACAP June 2017